


Solutions

by snowpuppies



Category: NCIS
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-04-07
Updated: 2009-04-07
Packaged: 2017-10-02 07:15:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowpuppies/pseuds/snowpuppies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Abby likes puzzles. There's no bigger puzzle than Ziva.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Solutions

**Author's Note:**

> Originally archived [here](http://snowpuppies.livejournal.com/165548.html).

_Abby likes puzzles. She likes gathering the evidence and sorting it out and pulling it into a cohesive whole. She likes the way, piece by piece, things begin to come together, and then you see it: the big picture, complete and logical and truthful. And when the evidence isn't enough, and you have to take a dizzying leap through the chromatographs and the algorithms and the printouts, slipping between fact and logic? Well, when you land on the other side, feet firmly planted on reality, it's all worth it._

She really, really loves her job.

 

***

 

"I can not believe I fell for that."

Abby watches from her perch as Ziva paces back and forth, muttering under her breath. "It's ok, Ziva, really."

"No, it is _not_ ok." She runs nervous fingers through her hair and continues to pace.

Ziva's back and forth strides across the tiny room are making Abby nervous, so she looks away, examining the contents of the shelving unit she's leaning against. A blue-and-orange bag catches her eye and she opens it, plunging a hand inside. Her find is promptly chomped into a million tiny bits and washed down with a gulp of the Caf-Pow! she'd been carrying when they had been tricked into entering the supply closet.

She hopes Gibbs will find them soon; she only has half left and if she runs out, things will get ugly.

She looks up when Ziva finally comes to rest, leaning against the wall next to her. Grasping the bag, she holds it up. "Cheese Puff?"

Ziva shakes her head. "No, thank you."

 

***

 

_Abby loves her job, and she loves her team. They're each like living breathing, complex human puzzles, and as much as she loves **them**, she loves figuring them out, learning what makes them work, how they think, what makes them smile._

And she thinks she knows them pretty well—Gibbs, McGee, DiNozzo, Ducky…even Director Shepard fits into a nice, neat, **logical** box—and then there's Ziva.

And Abby doesn't quite know what to make of her.

 

***

 

"I should have been paying attention."

"Ziva, I understand. I mean, DiNozzo can be pretty…distracting."

"I was _not_ distracted by Tony."

"Ziva, sometimes, when we have certain feelings…"

Ziva sighs. "I do not have feelings for Tony. He is my partner, nothing more, nothing less."

Abby sips her Caf-Pow! thoughtfully. "It would be ok, though, if you did."

"I do **not** have feelings for Tony." Ziva turns, pacing away, then pivots to face Abby once more. "But thank you…for your concern. It is…appreciated."

 

***

 

_Ziva's very pretty. She's tough and strong and capable, and Abby would bet on her in a head-to-head with DiNozzo or…pretty much any man, in a heartbeat. She's socially awkward in a way that's almost...cute?, and her misunderstanding of the English language is at the same time humorous and thought-provoking. But sometimes she seems cold and unfriendly and unfeeling, all bottled up and hermeneutically sealed, with a 'do not touch' sign strapped to her chest, and Abby is puzzled and hurt that another human being can be so closed to the world._

Other times, however, that hardened exterior softens—just a bit—and Abby can see a **woman** inside of Ziva, a beautiful woman that hides behind combat training and the threat of violence.

And Abby wants nothing more than to meet that woman.

 

***

 

"What were you looking at, then?" Flicking the empty bag away, Abby licks the orange powder from her fingers, sucking at each one to get the last bits of cheesy goodness. "Well?" She glances up at Ziva, who is staring at Abby with a familiar look on her face. A very familiar look. The look, in fact, that she'd seen Ziva give DiNozzo earlier.

DiNozzo…who had been standing right behind Abby.

Ziva shakes her head as if breaking out of a trance. "I'm sorry. What did you say?"

Abby scrambles to her feet. "You…you were looking at me." She takes another step forward as the events of that evening replay in her mind. "You weren't distracted by DiNozzo, you were distracted by me."

Ziva swallows, then looks away. "I—I meant no offence."

Abby's face stretches into a grin. "Ziva! Of course you didn't offend me! I just never…well, I never imagined you felt that way."

"I know you will find this hard to believe, but sometimes…I have trouble expressing myself."

Abby scoots closer. "I never would have guessed."

Ziva smiles for the first time Abby can remember, and then scowls again. "I still should have not been distracted."

"I've been told I'm distracting. Although, usually that's not in a good way." Abby's brows knit together before she shakes off the frown and slides her hand across Ziva's shoulders, pulling their bodies together. "In fact, I'm going to distract you now."

 

***

 

_Ziva's softness can be found in her lips, in the soft sweep of her tongue, the gentle caresses of her fingers. _

Abby finds herself drowning in the sweetness of Ziva's embrace, in the feel of this **woman** in her arms. She thinks that she's found the answer, in the most unlikely of places and in the most unlikely of ways, but now that she's got it, now that she understands it, she isn't going to let it go.

 

***

 

Abby sighes contentedly.

"So…you want to go out sometime?" She picks up her Caf-Pow!, frowning when the straw rattles at the bottom of the empty cup.

"Yes. I would like that."

"Great! I've got two tickets to a Brain Matter concert for this evening."

Ziva's eyes widen.

Abby discards her cup and holds her hand out to Ziva. "Now, give me your cell phone and I'll get us out of here."

"You can do that?"

Abby smirks. "I can do anything."

 

***

 

_Later that evening while Ziva holds her hand—smiling at Abby through her headache, while Abby moshes to Brain Matter's newest release—Abby realizes that Ziva's not that hard to understand when you put all the evidence together._

Ziva's not the puzzle; she's the solution.

 

 

_FIN_.


End file.
